Welcome to the After Party!

Our love story begins at Zaxby's! I had just graduated from college and moved back home to Cookeville. While looking for jobs that summer, I decided to go back to my roots and work for Zaxby's again. For my first couple of shifts, I was paired with Josh. He helped me with re-learning all the tasks since it had been about a year since I had worked there. Nothing too crazy as we were just co-workers. Fast forward about 6 months and our mutual friend, Alison, gets a text from Josh asking for my number for "a shift change" to which she replies "weird" and then gives him my number. To confirm, he did ask if I could cover his shift! After a few days, the conversation didn't stop. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. Little did I know, I was falling for a cute boy I worked with at Zaxby's. That being said, I had made it very clear that I don't date co-workers and thankfully, another location was opening up across town. Josh stayed at the Cookeville location while I transferred over to help open the new Algood location. A few weeks later on May 27, 2016, Josh asked me if I wanted to try out the "girlfriend-boyfriend thing" to which I replied "yes!". By the end of summer 2016, I knew he was the one for me. Later that year, I relocated to the Nashville area for work and Josh remained in Cookeville as he was in school. We made the distance and crazy schedules work, even if it meant a short weekend home or settling for a weekly FaceTime! Josh graduated from TTU in May 2019 with his undergrad degree! We always said that once Josh was out of school, we would take our relationship to the next level - fiancé has a nice ring to it (pun intended). However, Josh went back to school to pursue his Masters degree. I think at this point, everyone knew if wasn't a matter of IF but WHEN was he going to pop the question. Josh graduated with his Masters in the summer of 2021. On September 18, 2021, he took me on a helicopter tour of the Great Smoky Mountains in Sevierville, TN (which was so cool!) and took me out to dinner. Mind you, I didn't have any idea that today was going to be the day. We get back home from our adventure and he tells me to stand in the kitchen because he has another surprise for me. I'm standing there with my arms out, palms open, eyes closed with a big cheesy grin on my face. He tells me to open my eyes and I see the love of my life on one knee with a ring asking me to marry him. In shock and very surprised, it look me a second to say yes but the "YES!" did eventually come out. Five and a half years together with forever to go! Roughly a year later, Josh and I were experiencing a lot of change - sold our house, bought a new one, moved away from family to move closer to our jobs, the list goes on. With the chaos, we decided to have a very small backyard ceremony on November 11, 2022. We wanted to close out our first year of marriage with all of you! Together, we can all say "Vicktory At Last!"